Model X Deliveries By September As Tesla Explains Production Pain Points

Tesla Motors made it pretty clear on Wednesday why the Model X, its first crossover, could hit production delays.

The electric car maker, which announced second-quarter results on Wednesday, devoted a lot of space in its SEC filing to explain the challenges ahead for the Model X, which should arrive by September.

"Small number" of Model X deliveries by September: "In Q3, we expect to produce just over 12,000 vehicles, representing a more than 60% increase from a year ago...This includes a small number of Model X deliveries," the SEC filing stated. Musk added during the earnings conference call that "in terms of the initial deliveries of the X, that's sort of consistent with what we predicted on the last call, which is end of September."

Supplier bottlenecks: "We are still testing the ability of many suppliers to deliver high quality production parts in quantities sufficient to meet our planned production ramp. Since production ramps rapidly late in Q4, a one-week push out of this ramp due to an issue at even a single supplier could reduce Model X production by approximately 800 units for the quarter," according to the SEC filing.

Limited production capacity: "Furthermore, since Model S and Model X are produced on the same general assembly line, Model X production challenges could slow Model S production. Simply put, in a choice between a great product or hitting quarterly numbers, we will take the former," the SEC filing said.

And Musk said during the earnings conference call (via Seeking Alpha) that "we only want to deliver great cars, so we don't want to drive to a number that's greater than our ability to deliver high quality vehicles." He also mentioned advanced orders: "But we have so many advanced orders on the X...and we are going to try to get people their car as fast as we can."

The above bullet points highlight the ongoing challenges of manufacturing for a relatively new car maker. Former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz -- who headed GM's Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid project -- used to needle Tesla about the hard realities of manufacturing cars. To some extent, Tesla is still grappling with those realities, as Musk often points out.